Thunder Force II
Thunder Force II is a scrolling shooter developed by Tecno Soft. It was first released in Japan in 1988 for the Sharp X68000 computer. One year later, it was ported to the Sega Genesis game console and released in Japan (under the name Thunder Force II MD), Europe, and the United States on 1989. It is the second chapter of the Thunder Force series. A Turbografx 16/PC Engine version was completely finished but was cancelled. Story Taking place soon after Thunder Force, the ORN Empire creates a powerful new battleship, Plealos. Using this battleship, the ORN Empire once again attacks the Galaxy Federation. The outcome of the attacks result in the destruction of the Galaxy Federation affiliated planet of Reda, and heavy destruction on the planet Nepura (Nebula), which the ORN Empire eventually captures from the Galaxy Federation. Eventually, the Galaxy Federation learns that ORN houses Plealos deep below Nebula's surface when not in use and takes the opportunity to plan an operation to take it down. They send the next iteration of their Fire LEO series of fighter craft, the Fire LEO-02 Exceliza, to destroy the bases on Nepura and eventually find and destroy Plealos. The player controls the Exceliza and travels through a variety of stages to accomplish this goal. Gameplay Stages in the game are now split into two formats: the free-directional scrolling, overhead stage format from the original game (attack pattern: Delta), and horizontal forward-scrolling stages (attack pattern: Omega) which would become the series mainstay, dropping the former entirely. Each stage begins in the top-view perspective, where the player has to locate the cores of a certain number of major enemy bases and destroy them. After this is accomplished, the stage continues from the side-view perspective, which plays like a traditional horizontal scrolling shooter. After the boss of the side-view sub stage is defeated, the player moves on to the next stage. Building upon its predecessor, Thunder Force II introduced a weapon system that would become the staple for the rest of the series. The player's ship now has default arsenal of weapons which include a twin shot, back shot, and air to ground bombs in Delta stages. By collecting certain weapons, the default weapons can be upgraded to more a powerful level. Also, the player could obtain a certain number of new weapons with various unique abilities by collecting the weapon's corresponding item ("Hunter", a famous weapon of the series, debuts in this game). Once obtained, the weapons can be switched between at the player's desire, but if Exceliza is destroyed, all collected weapons are lost. The Delta and the Omega stages have different sets of weapons; losing weapons in the top-view stages doesn't affect the weapons equipped in the side-view stages and vice versa. Thunder Force II also introduced CLAW add-ons; small pods which revolve around the ship. The function of the CLAWs is to shield weak incoming shots, and to provide extra firepower by firing single, normal shots. The player may acquire up to two CLAWs at a time, but will lose them upon ship crash. Exclusive to this game is an item which temporally increases their orbit speed, making them more likely to block bullets. Category:Classic Games